Page 10

10

DANTE

I watch Felix work with the book, frowning in concentration. The waves of emotion rolling off him are complex. Excitement at the challenge, wariness of the book’s power, and something deeper, more primal that he’s trying to suppress. I can feel it all, and I know Gaida can too.

She stands a few feet away from the table, her arms wrapped around herself, creating a barrier. The sire bond with Luke has changed her in subtle ways I can’t quite define yet. There’s a new awareness in her eyes, a depth that wasn’t there before.

Luke hovers near her, never more than an arm’s length away. The possessiveness is expected, but there’s a reverence in the way he looks at her now that thrills me in ways I didn’t expect.

“Got anything yet?” I ask Felix, breaking the charged silence.

Felix’s fingers hover just above the pages as if he’s afraid to touch them directly. Can’t blame him. That book gives me the creeps, and not just because it’s ancient and filled with blood magick, but because of how it affects Felix and Gaida. The way it plays with their emotions, amplifying what’s already there between them when they aren’t ready for that step is dangerous and playing with fire.

“This is going to take a while,” he mutters, his grey eyes scanning the text rapidly. “The ritual is complex.”

“What can I do to help?” I ask, moving closer to Felix.

He glances up. “Move away from me.”

I snort but do as he asks, edging closer to Gaida. Testing.

Luke is between us in an instant.

“That’s going to be a problem,” I murmur.

“I know.” Luke grimaces, clenching and unclenching his hands. “I’m aware it’s the sire bond. It will settle.”

“Will it?” I ask, genuinely curious. “Because I’ve never seen you this territorial. Even when we shared?—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Luke cuts me off, his voice razor-sharp.

Gaida steps between us, her hands raised. “Luke, you can’t stop Dante from getting close to me. Besides, we’ve got bigger problems.”

“This new dynamic is going to take some adjustment, but we don’t have the luxury of time,” Luke says. “I’ll try not to interfere, but it’s my instinct to protect her.”

“She doesn’t need protecting from me.”

“I’m aware.”

“Are you? Perhaps we need to take this into a more intimate setting and see how you react then.”

The challenge is laid bare, and he raises his eyebrow but doesn’t try to kill me.

“Later,” Gaida murmurs.

“The ritual requires blood,” Felix announces suddenly, his finger tracing a line of text. “A lot of very specific blood.”

“How specific?” Gaida asks, moving toward him before stopping abruptly as Luke tenses.

Felix looks up, his expression grim. “Very specific.”

“Meaning?” I snap, my vampire senses getting agitated that Luke is still hovering and glaring at me like he wants to rip my throat out.

“Meaning… mine.”

“Yours?” I ask before Gaida can. “What’s so special about yours?”

He locks gazes with me, and I suddenly feel like the biggest douche on the planet.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Gaida asks. “What does ‘oh’ mean?”

“He means pure blood,” Luke murmurs, finally stepping back from Gaida.

“Oh,” Gaida says, her cheeks blushing. “Well, good thing we didn’t…”

Felix snorts. “Yeah, good thing. Too bad, it requires a lot of my blood to activate the ritual.”

“How much is a lot?” I ask, dreading his answer because I already know. I can feel it, but I just have to hope I’m wrong.

“All of it,” he states. “Every last drop.”

“That’s not happening,” Gaida says immediately, her voice hard as steel. “We’ll find another virgin.”

Her blurted out word makes her grimace, but we all accept it for what it is.

“There isn’t another virgin,” Felix replies, his expression resigned. “The ritual to destroy the sword without releasing Mashtar requires the complete sacrifice of a virgin with the magick of two worlds. That’s me.”

“No,” Gaida says again, moving toward him despite Luke’s tension. “I’m not losing you, Felix.”

“We need to think about this rationally.”

“Rationally?” Gaida’s eyes flash dangerously. “There’s nothing rational about sacrificing Felix!”

“I didn’t say we should sacrifice Felix,” I reply, keeping my voice calm despite the emotions rolling off her in waves. “But we need to understand all our options.”

Luke crosses over to the table, peering over Felix’s shoulder at the book. “Are you certain you’re translating this correctly?”

Felix gives him a withering look. “No, I thought I’d just volunteer to die for fun.”

“I meant,” Luke says with forced patience, “is there any room for interpretation? Any loophole?”

Felix sighs. “Maybe. I’d need more time, but it’s pretty explicit. The ritual requires what it requires.”

“What about a partial sacrifice?” Gaida asks, her voice tight with desperation. “Couldn’t that work?”

I shake my head. “Blood Magick doesn’t work that way. It’s all or nothing.”

“Then it’s nothing,” she says firmly. “We’ll find another way.”

Felix closes the book with a snap, his expression unreadable. “There might not be another way, Gaida. If Mashtar gets free?—”

“He won’t,” she interrupts. “We’ll figure something out. We always do.”

I move closer to Felix, feeling his resignation beneath his composed exterior. “What if we could simulate death?” I suggest. “Drain you to the point of death, perform the ritual, and then bring you back?”

Luke’s eyes narrow as he follows my train of thought that I’m not even sure I should be speaking out loud.

Felix looks between us, his grey eyes calculating. “The ritual specifies ‘complete sacrifice.’ Not just blood loss, but actual death.”

“Temporary death,” I counter carefully. “We let your heart stop, but only for a moment, and then…”

“And then what?” he asks, daring me to say it. He knows. It’s fucking obvious when you are standing in a room full of vampires.

“Then one of us turns you into a vampire,” I state, arms folded, daring him to come at me for trying to figure out a way to save him.

The silence that follows my statement is deafening.

“No,” Felix says flatly. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not?” I ask, only half taunting him. “Would being a vampire be so terrible?”

His eyes flash with anger. “That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” Gaida asks softly, her gaze fixed on him.

Felix hisses. “The point is that I’m a sorcerer. My magick is who I am. If I become a vampire, I lose that.”

“Not necessarily,” Luke interjects, his voice thoughtful. “I didn’t and you are exactly like me.”

“Fun for you,” I mutter and receive a vicious glare from Gaida.

“It’s risky,” he murmurs. “You are more powerful than me.”

“Says who? I was turned when I was twenty-five, only four years older than you are now. That’s not much different in terms of magickal power.”

The noise that Gaida makes is almost feral, making us all look up and make sure she is okay.

She is staring at Luke like he just fell from the moon. I guess learning some of his long-arsed backstory is like catnip for her.

“Back to the matter at hand,” I say. “Felix. You have a choice to make. Either find a loophole, another virgin with magick from two worlds or this is your future.”

“Who would sire me?” he asks, after a beat.

The silence is deafening.

“Well, gee. Don’t all fight amongst yourselves for the honour.”

I snort. “It’s not that we don’t want to,” I explain. “It’s more complicated than that. The sire bond will create an intimate connection. Unless you swing both ways, I don’t think you’d want that with me or Luke.”

“Luke is my cousin!” he roars, his cheeks flaming bright red.

“What?” I stammer, blind-sided. “Since when?”

“Since always,” he snaps, scooting as far away from Luke as possible.

“We found out the other day,” Luke says. “I guess in all the events, we forgot to mention it.”

I glance at Gaida, but she looks like she already knew.

Felix’s gaze bores into mine. “No offence, but I can barely keep up with how I feel for Gaida. I don’t think adding in complicated feelings for you will do my brain any good.”

“None taken,” I say easily. “So that leaves Gaida.”

“Gods!” she snaps, shoving her hands into her hair. “Two charges? I don’t…”

She cuts off abruptly and storms out of the restricted section.

“I’ll go,” I say, ready to follow her.

“No, let me,” Felix says, and I step back. This is his life, or death after all.